Danny Elfman: Music for a Darkened Theatre

One of the earliest memories I have of cinema is when my dad took me to see Edward Scissorhands in the movie theatre. I was just 8 years old, but I can still vividly remember being transported to another world by the beautiful music on screen. The iconic film score fills the space, elevating the movie to richly emotional experiences that might not be possible otherwise. 

When the movie was over, I made my dad stay in the theatre and sit through the end credits. I had to know who was responsible for creating this beautiful music! I had to find out, in the hopes that I could find even more music by this person. (Think pre-internet and streaming days when we discovered music through our own due diligence, researching and acquiring cassettes and CDs when available.) I discovered that the composer was Danny Elfman, and since that day, as a very impressionable 8-year-old, I have been a dedicated fan. 

I've always been curious about the music I listen to: the artist, composer, songwriter, producer, which album, etc. So, I noticed right away that Danny Elfman was always linked to the films of Tim Burton, who I also fell in love with at an early age. This duo of Burton and Elfman has been extremely influential on my personal style and a mainstay on my journey through film and music. They create such a uniquely rich aesthetic that is instantly recognizable. Haunting and beautiful, spooky but whimsical, jarring and elegant, forlorn yet heroic, ICONIC. One can’t help but notice the music of Danny Elfman. 

Just in time for Halloween, I’ve curated a playlist of my favorite Danny Elman scores, mostly from Tim Burton Films, but also a few from other projects. These tunes are sure to set the spooky vibe of the season. I hope that you give it a listen, and remember that we can find music that inspires us in all kinds of places, especially in our favorite films. 

Pop Music: The People's Music

Pop music, what is it? Some think of it as glazed-over production with saccharine hooks, offensively superficial and not worthy of being considered “serious music”. What I believe pop music to be, is true to its name: anything that serves as “popular” music (basically, a tune that a room full of people would recognize). That can range anywhere from Billie Eilish to the Beatles. There are of course sub-genres to popular music, such as country, electronic, dance, rock, hip-hop, etc, but they all reside under the umbrella term “pop”. Even Mozart would have been considered “pop” music for his day! 

Pop music is what I call “the people’s music”, a significant contribution to the cultured, human experience. Pop music is often the soundtrack to our lives! Hearing a pop tune can bring us back to a time and place, or remind us of feelings that we didn’t even know we had. Music (any, not just pop) can give us an avenue of expression that other forms of literature cannot. The relatability of pop lyrics and chord progressions can bring so many of us together; I always find it so powerful to see a concert full of thousands of different people with different backgrounds, privileges, and experiences, singing to the same tune and sharing a similar sentiment. 

Basically, pop music is important.

I’ve compiled a list of pop piano tunes that I’ve taught over the years, and other iconic piano licks that I feel every pianist should at least know about. Also sprinkled in a few of my favorite piano bangers. I hope you enjoy, and find some inspiration to take with you to lesson!

Continuing the Playlist Series

Chopin: The Piano Icon

Chopin, the piano icon, is arguably the most piano-esque composer of classical music, the “pianist’s pianist.” A fun fact about Chopin: he composed primarily for piano alone, unlike other composers who had to write for various instruments and compose symphonic pieces. Here are some personal favorites from Chopin’s canon of work, including pieces I know and have played, and other quintessential hits.

You might notice that some tracks feature the same piece, but are played by different pianists. That’s because each pianist brings their own interpretation of the music, and this is the artistic and individualized aspect of playing classical. Eventually, when we are ready, we want to open our ears to consider the unique presentation of each pianist. You may find that you enjoy some interpretations but don’t resonate with others; this is part of the classical listening experience.

Philip Glass: Minimalist Beauty

Of all the music that has influenced my playing, none has moved me quite like the minimalism of Philip Glass. A contemporary, neo-classical, and minimalist composer, I have always found his music to be cathartic and meditative. Philip’s catalog of compositions is quite expansive, but here are some personal favorites, including several pieces that I know and have played before.

Listening To Music: Introducing Classical Repertoire

Classical music is notoriously difficult to appreciate and for the most part inaccessible to the novice listener. It can feel overwhelming to find an entry point, and the process of developing an ear for it and your own style preferences can be intimidating.  

My mom, who knows nothing about classical music, unknowingly played a crucial role in fostering my love for this genre when she gave me a random compilation CD of classical piano pieces, shortly after I started taking lessons. Then I saw the film "Amadeus” (a film about the life of Mozart) that heavily influenced me and kept me curious in the classical world. Perhaps it was these two formative memories that brought me to it, or maybe the music just called to me. In the end, no one pushed me towards classical music, I was naturally drawn to it.

I am grateful that classical music entered my sphere at an early age. The early exposure eventually led me to study music academically in college, where I really cemented my deep appreciation and understanding of the repertoire. 

I recognize that diving into classical music without guidance can be daunting. So, I’ve curated a collection of my favorite classical pieces for you. There is so much more I can say, but let’s start with these top personal hits as a jumping off pointing. And just maybe, this playlist can serve as your classical CD, getting you more curious about the world of classical piano repertoire. 

Listening To Music: An Essential Part of Your Piano Practice

Did you realize that listening to music holds just as much weight as practicing? Understanding the music that moves you is a vital aspect of your piano journey and musical growth. Music can be found everywhere—in movies, video games, podcast intros, TV shows, etc. While it’s important to understand the music that moves you, just the very act of listening to music immerses you in the language.

From my earliest memories, I've had a genuine passion for music. I'd pore over my parents' cassettes, diving into the world of artists like John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Otis Redding, and Bob Seger. I'd commit album titles and release years to memory, captivated by the role of a "producer." Though I didn't fully grasp its meaning, I knew it was significant. Whether it was my reserved nature or my destiny to immerse myself in pop culture, I've always had an eagerness to discover music that ignites my desire to play.

Video games also played a pivotal role in shaping my musical taste. The original NES offered some iconic tunes by the great Koji Kondo (Mario Bros, Zelda). I would record these melodies by holding up my recorder to the TV then would be seen pedaling around my neighborhood with the cassette player strapped to my bike's handlebars, blasting the 8-bit sounds of Dr. Mario and Tetris. It was like I was in my own cinematic world with my personalized soundtrack.

So, here's the plan: I'm launching a playlist series where I'll share a curated playlist with you each week for the next month or so. My hope is to inspire you to explore music and discover sounds that resonate with you. Many of the tracks I'll share are pieces I've taught and know inside out, reflecting my influences and musical journey. Others are timeless classics or essential pieces from the piano repertoire that I believe you should be acquainted with. Happy listening!

The Healing Power of Music: Creating Music for Music’s Sake

Remember to always make art for art’s sake. Even if you feel that no one will ever hear, that no one will ever appreciate the countless hours that you toil away at the craft, bearing your soul and seemingly practicing practicing practicing for nothing…. DO IT AND SHARE IT ANY WAY. Music has so many healing properties. A tremendous gift is exchanged when that one person who truly needs to hear your music does so and is deeply moved, both of you are moved.

Choreography of The Hands: An Introduction to The Taubman Technique

In college, I developed a playing-related injury that almost took me out of my music program and changed my career trajectory. An RSI (Repetitive Stress Injury) such as tendinitis and carpal tunnel syndrome, is a common worry amongst pianists and other instrumentalists, as the many hours of practice can be physically demanding, much like an athlete. If it were not for discovering the Taubman technique, a very specialized piano technique that emphasizes the importance of natural movement (think “piano ergonomics”), I would not still be playing and teaching today. 

I was introduced to a Taubman teacher in my early twenties who retrained and rehabilitated me, allowing me to get through school. My injuries flared up again several years later after I moved to the Bay Area, and I have now dived deep into a lifelong commitment and practice to the technique. I hope to one day be certified in this technique and join the Goldansky Institute in some form (the Goldansky Institute was established in 2003 to bring high-level training in the Taubman Approach to the musical community).

As this technique is so important to me and integral to the way I teach, I would like to share this documentary video on the founder, Dorthy Taubman, who created the technique while helping injured pianists from Juilliard stay in their music programs. It’s about an hour long and is very inspiring and informative, describing the technique and how it was created. I hope that you’ll give it a watch! 

The Path: process, not end

Recently I have been met with some students who are losing motivation and focus. I know this feeling well, as anyone does who is ‘on the path’. Music is such a complex practice. It is all at once a language, an art, a physical event, and part mathematics. It is emotive and expressive yet adorned with many binary truths: notes and rhythms can either be wrong or right, a developing technique has it’s limitations, and boredom and frustration ensues when we feel ‘we’re just not getting it’.

The truth is that there is never an end to ‘not getting it’. This is not meant to discourage you. On the contrary, it’s meant to liberate you. It’s a funny little paradox but the closer you get to ‘the thing’, the farther away it becomes. The more you learn about music, the more you realize you don’t know. Inevitably, no matter how much you progress, you will still be on the path. 

What is the path? The ability to honor the process, not the end, and stay the course. I like to think of myself sitting at the same table of Beethoven and Philip Glass (insert your own piano/music heroes here) and feeling absolutely welcome to do so, because I know that I belong there. How do I belong at the same table of great artists? Easy. I do what they do, I walk the same path. We are allies, we honor the same process (regardless of whatever end we independently reach). 

Often times it’s easy to fantasize some notion of ‘an end’, whether that be an image of you rolling arpeggios flawlessly up and down the keyboard, on a stage in a band pounding out chord progressions with your eyes closed in a joyful fervor, writing the perfect song, or playing that song that you love EXACTLY like the recording that you love (which I can tell you will never happen as you are YOU and not the recording). But the truth is, if we only focused on these illusions of ‘ends’, we would be missing out on the beautiful process. The art and act of authentically engaging with music. Think about it: to master one Philip Glass etude may take you several months. To sit in that zen moment of mastery that may last only 7 minutes (or however long said piece may be) is a glorious thing, don’t get me wrong. But what of those hours upon hours you spent on the bench, in the process? This is the real pay off, these are the moments that build character. These are the moments that make you a musician. 

A dear person to me, also on the path, shared this Ira Glass quote (a writer who ironically is the cousin of Philip Glass, my aforementioned piano hero). I’d like to pass it along in the hopes that you never lose the forest through the trees, that you never stray from your path.

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.” - Ira Glass

The Piano: True Love Never Dies

For me personally, the piano is the most amazing instrument. I am absolutely fascinated by it’s invention (1701 to be exact) and cultural evolution over time. I love the timbre (pronounced ‘tam-ber’ like ‘amber’), which is the musical term for an instrument’s unique tone quality. I also love the percussive aspects of the piano, lending to that visceral experience of executing sweeping dynamics and exciting rhythms. Did you know that the piano is actually a percussion instrument? Despite the strings that are present in an acoustic piano, the instrument belongs to the percussion family. When you depress a piano key, a hammer strikes its corresponding strings to produce the sound, much like a drumstick is needed to strike a snare. If you think about, the piano is basically a drum kit that not only produces a beat but tones simultaneously…what an amazing thing! The piano has historically been used by composers (of many instrumental backgrounds and genres) for its ability to arrange and play polyphonic musical ideas, meaning you can play harmony and melody AND the rhythm section simultaneously. One must also consider the extreme functionality of the keyboard’s linear layout and how user friendly it is. The piano remains the quintessential resource for learning chords and music theory (the language of music and how to ‘speak’ it). Talk about a win!